If you are an art lover, then a stay in
Amsterdam would be incomplete without a visit to the Van Gogh Museum, which is
located on Museumplein (street entrance on Paulus Potterstraat). It is next
door to the Stedelijk Museum (of modern art) and only a short walk from the
famous Rijksmuseum. Trams pass the door at frequent intervals, so it will not
take long for you to get there wherever your apartment or hotel may be.
The Van Gogh Museum is actually two
buildings, a dramatic new annex having been designed by the Japanese architect
Kisho Kurokawa in 1999. The combined venue is a fitting home for the world’s largest
collection of works by one of Europe’s greatest artists of the 19th
century.
The collection comprises 200 paintings by
Vincent Van Gogh as well as 500 drawings and 700 letters. The exhibition seeks
to place Van Gogh’s life and work in context and tell the story of his deeply
troubled life, most of which was spent outside the Netherlands.
You can therefore see a range of paintings
from his earliest pieces, dating from 1881 before he left the Netherlands, to
some that were completed shortly before his death by suicide at the age of 37.
Well-known works to be seen here include
“The Potato Eaters”, “Sunflowers” and “Wheatfield with Crows”.
Also included are works by other artists
that influenced Van Gogh’s style, a number of Japanese prints from his own
collection being among their number.
© John Welford
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